Thursday, December 13, 2007

Ice Storm

Monday night I started watching the closings and cancellations for the next day. When I saw USD 501 (Topeka Public Schools) announced it was closing the next day, I knew it was not good. USD 501 typically does not close unless it is really bad out. I think they even announced before the other school districts in town (at least as far as I could tell), which really concerned me.

Tuesday I woke up early and started watching to see if the State of Kansas and the Shawnee County District Court would be open for business. The State announced shortly after 6:00 a.m., but nothing on the court for a while. I actually was starting to get dressed when they finally announced the court was closed as well. I put my sweats back on, went out and sprayed my car with ice and frost shield, then I came back inside and went back to bed.

I did not lose power, so I consider myself fortunate. My parents lost power Tuesday night, but they were lucky enough to get it back last night. Westar Energy is saying it could be 7 to 10 days before power is fully restored. Manhattan (about an hour west of here) was hit much harder, as was Brown County (north of here). One of my friends lives in Kansas City, and she said that her front yard looked like a tornado had hit.

I did go out and take pictures of the ice on the trees.

Today it warmed up enough for ice to start melting.

It is definitely one of life's ironies that something so beautiful can be so dangerous.